A Xarelto bleeding lawsuit was filed against drug manufacturers Bayer Healthcare and Janssen Pharmaceuticals alleging they failed to provide adequate warnings about the safety risks, including life-threatening Xarelto bleeding, associated with the use of the popular blood thinner.

A Tennessee resident alleges the companies failed to warn patients and provide information to physicians related to the increased risks of life-threatening Xarelto bleeding events associated with taking the blood thinner.

According to the Xarelto lawsuit, plaintiff Earl W. was prescribed Xarelto in Nov. 2013 upon the direction of his physician for the treatment of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism prophylaxis.

Less than a month after using the blood thinner drug, Earl experienced life-threatening Xarelto bleeding, for which he was hospitalized in Dec. 2013, as well as other life-threatening severe and personal injuries that were allegedly due to Bayer and Janssen’s failure to include a “Boxed Warning” about Xarelto bleeding.

Earl claims the drug should not be sold and that Bayer and Janssen negligently promoted Xarelto as safe when they allegedly knew the blood thinner could cause life-threatening Xarelto bleeding.

Life-Threatening Xarelto Bleeding

Xarelto (rivaroxaban) was first approved by the FDA in July of 2011 as a prescription medicine with three primary uses: to reduce the risk of blood clots and stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation, to treat deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, and to reduce the risk of blood clots in patients undergoing knee or hip replacement surgery.

Xarelto belongs to a class of anticoagulants called direct factor Xa inhibitors. Sometimes referred to as blood thinners, anticoagulants interfere with the normal clotting of the blood.

Clotting is essential if a person is to stop bleeding from an open wound, but some people experience clotting when they are not injured. Atrial fibrillation is a heart condition characterized by an irregular heartbeat that can cause blood to pool in the heart and may lead to clots.

If these travel to the brain, they may cause a stroke. Blood clots that develop in the legs (deep vein thrombosis) and pulmonary embolism (blood clots in the lungs) can cause serious complications and/or death if left untreated.

When people experience side effects they suspect were caused by a prescription or over-the-counter medicine, they or their doctors may report the events to the FDA. These events are recorded in the FDA Adverse Events Reporting System (AERS).

Of the more than 1,800 adverse events linked to Xarelto, the most common events were pulmonary embolism (386 reports), deep vein thrombosis (279 reports), gastrointestinal hemorrhage (107 reports) and hemorrhage (107 reports). Hospitalization was reported in 891 of these events; and 183 of the patients lost their lives.

Xarelto Bleeding Lawsuits

The Xarelto bleeding lawsuit is seeking compensatory, economic, and punitive damages for the drug companies’ alleged fraudulent and reckless disregard for the safety and welfare of Xarelto users like Earl.

The Xarelto Bleeding Lawsuit is Case No. 2:16-cv-1355 and is filed within the larger multidistrict litigation In Re: Xarelto (Rivaroxaban) Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2592 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.